how long to the promise land?

[rokman nash]

How many weeks, months, whatever, did it take SWIM to become a recovering addict, user, (prefer junkie). What was the catalyst that made SWIM make the change.

Please don't leave the important stuff out, its the difference between the real story, and what is percieved as our reality.

Good thoughts

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Great topic. Always interesting to see your posts
	great poll idea

[Dickon]

I answered a year, as that is how long my cat stayed clean for first time he tried to clean up, but looking at your post I think you're asking a totally different question. The answer to what I think is your question is no time at all! The instant one stops using one starts recovering.

There is no clearly delineated stage at which one starts recovering, or finishes recovering. I don't much care for the concept of "recovering" myself, as it has connotations of getting something back, and I don't think this happens. One moves forwards in a different direction, and discovers new interests, and things about oneself.

For opiate withdrawal, I've read 9 months to get over PAWS (post-acute withdrawal symptoms) as well as 2 years. I've also read that after 4 years in a 12-step fellowship, recovering addicts are comparable to normal people emotionally on a variety of scales.

People experience abstinence differently. For some it's great and easy, for others it's incredibly difficult and often hellish. Boredom, loneliness, lack of meaning, lack of self-esteem and a hundred and one other problems often need to be addressed.

It's also not a straight road. What seems easy one day can be hard the next. Seeming progress can appear to evaporate.

As to the catalyst, I can put down an incident that occurred a while before cat quit, but I'm not sure even that was the catalyst. The stars aligned and I got my willpower hat on. I'm really not sure how or why it happened!

Dickon

[oxynomo]

Swimis at 41/2 months clean though he is getting better he doesn't think he is completely cured yet.Still has a lot of up and down days with the up days slowly gaining control.Hopefully in a few more months he'll be out of that shell the opiates had him confined infor so long.The only downfall to this is that swim has very bad back and even worse cervical,so with that its like a waiting game to see which one completely implodes first.then will the bad ways be rekindled,we'll see and hope not.O is good for now.

[ex-junkie]

swim is just over 3.5 years clean from opiates- since october 2005. the catalyst was running out of take away doses of methadone. she had lied to her doctor and said she was going interstate, and gotten 16 take away doses. she ended up falling about 4 days short, then thought fuck it this has got to stop, and it did. swim has fully recovered in her opinion. shes got better things to do with her time now, and couldnt imagine being so numb. opiates are not a feeling she wishes to experience anymore. full stop.

she doesnt crave them, and she wasnt mournful when she stopped. she has been around people who are high, people have used it in front of her, but it doesnt bother her in the slightest. being in control of her life and music are much more rewarding than chasing a high that cant be matched.

swim seeks alternative medication for pain, surgery, she refuses to take anything, even OTC codeine tablets for headaches. on the odd chance that something in her brain will twig. she knows shes safe from relapse if she doesnt take any opiates at all.

[chillinwill]

I think the recovery process is a constant, ongoing battle that will never end. It does get easier as time goes by; however, the cravings and memory of the "old addict" will still be there. Dickon makes a very good point in that the moment one stops thinking about recovery, they will start slipping back into old habits which can lead to a relapse.

Red Rock finally noticed that he was feeling very different in a good way after 3 months clean and then around the 7-8 month mark, noticed a very positive shift in his outlook on life. He has read that it takes the brain 12-18 months to heal and return back to "normal". He must say at now being at the 13 month mark clean off heroin, he is starting to feel like his old self. Of course, he was in his pre teen age years when he first started using so when he says that he is starting to feel like his old self, this is what he remembers his old self as. He can't remember many times over the course when addicted to opiates what he normally feels like without using. He does think though that once the 6-9 month mark is reached in recovery, that the process gets much easier (at least it did for him).

Even at being 13 months clean now, Red Rock still experiences the occasional craving as well as some lonliness, boredom, depression, etc. However, he thinks that most, if not all, people experience these things and that this is his body's way of letting him know that he is slowly returning to a normal, non using, human being. Another thing Red Rock has noticed is that as he progresses in his recovery, he is constantly changing and adapting to life and the way his recovery is going. For instance, there will be times where he is feeling on top of the world and doesn't have a worry in the world about using. There are also times where he is craving heroin and must know what to do in order to not use.

As for the catalyst, it was probably being homeless after being kicked out of rehab, getting arrested and charged with numerous felonies, none of his friends wanted to be friends with him, and his parents didn't want to talk or see him until he got clean. He has had the friends and parents problem as well as being homeless before, but for some reason, this time it just all clicked and Red Rock said to himself, "Why do I want to keep putting up with all of this bullshit?" He was finally tired of being homeless with no friends and no support from his family.

He must say now though, he has been the best in his life that he has been in the longest time he can remember. Recovery has its ups and downs and if one can endure the downs, it makes the ups that much better.

[Spucky]

swim is sending one of his beloved Statistics

Introduction: Detoxification treatment has reached an important significance among the supply of treatments for opiod dependents since 1991. Qualified detoxification treatment has made possible admissions and discharges without direct inpatient abstinent orientated treatment. More and more acknowledge the relapse as a sequence of opiod dependency. Follow-ups after detoxification therapies are rare.
Method: During the period from 2005 to 2007, all patients, who had completed successfully their detoxification treatment, were regularly asked, if they had relapsed or if they had been living without drugs. The patients were divided into two groups: group 1 consisted of those patients who participated afterwards in an inpatient treatment; whereas group 2 consisted of those who did not participate in any further therapies.
Results: 42.6% of all patients who completed the qualified detoxification treatment successfully. 197 of those were allocated in group 1 and 217 in group 2. One week after having been discharged, 11% of group 1 and already 53% of group 2 had relapsed. Three month after discharge, 48% of group 1 and 85% of group 2 had relapsed. After 12 month, 84% of group 1 and 94% of group 2 had relapsed. 1.9% of all patients died within one year after their discharge.
Discussion and conclusion: The superiority at the beginning, concerning the abstinence of the therapy-group, declines and adjusts to the non-therapy group within one year, after discharge. But the abstinence of the therapy-group keeps superior with 16% to 6%. With qualified detoxification treatment, mortality can be kept, almost as low as with a substitution therapy. Longer periods of observation are aspired.

source: http://www.ecomed-medizin.de/sj/sfp/...rtikelId/10751

[AvidFan]

As many will know, Patient X went through hell and back, it didn't help that his attempt at quitting came at probably the worst time of all, while he was going through the stress of losing his last remaining parent to cancer.

Then again, maybe it did help. Maybe it helped a lot, in fact. Although X did fuck up at one point it was a valuable lesson learned, and he went into therapy to unravel the reasons behind why he was always turning to drugs or drink in the first place - which might not have happened if life had been all rosy and nice and comfortable.

As recovering addicts we all have to give ourselves a pat on the back now and again, we have been to places most "normal" people would shit themselves to glimpse at, and we live to survive - somehow.

It can't be said of everyone who's been through it, and there are other factors in play for him, but X has come out of the other side stronger, better, and wiser. He's not sure he will ever get back to normal now - he's way better than normal

Good wishes to all Good thread idea Rokman

[rokman nash]

Since ROC started this poll, he feels he should add Dave's thoughts. Dave made a little over 4 months the first time he seriously tried to make a change.Not what he hoped for, but better than he expected.

The catalyst for Dave was his avatar(Molli), his pug pup.He was a miserable, stumbling, piece of shit junkie douchebag, who was given this little thing for his birthday, and proceeded to almost kill daily for the first two weeks of ownership. He came awake one early morning about 3 am with his little(1.5 lb at the time), shitbug screaming like a murdered woman.

He awoke figuratively, and literally, and knew that his problem had escalated to epic proportions(read descent about page 5), and realized that he was killing himself.

Since then he is doing better than he could hope for, and thanks the usual cadre of R&A junkies(meant lovingly), for helping him to get to where he resides physically and mentally right now.

Good thoughts

[zarlmnop]

good question. Swim will refer to the longest abstinence time that swim has ever had. In 1987 swim hit "bottom" and landed in the hospital with a leg absess and was looking at amputation. Swim was very lucky and got to keep her leg. That was the catalyst. Swim got methadome while in the hospital, but upon being discharged just did not have what it takes to chase the dragon any more. Swim got into a state funded 90day tx and then a halfway house where swim stayed for about 2 years. This was the beginning of 8 years clean and sober. Swim was very active in the 12 step program, and slowly gained an awesome life. Then, swim got married, had kids, bought a house, quit going to meetings, and that was when the relapse started. Long before swim picked up again, the insidious relapse was on it way. They say that if you are not working an recovery you are working on a relapse. Well, that was years ago, and swim has been struggling to get and stay clean ever since. Swim strongly believes that the older you get, the harder it is.

[ex-junkie]

swim feels she should add that she tried detox at least fifty times before she made it out of the woods. theres only a small percentage out of every hundred people who detox who succeed. so she figured that if it were 1 in a hundred, she would get there within a hundred attempts. :P